United States | Footloose

A shortage in America creates opportunities for nurses with wheels

Once, frackers travelled to the Dakotas to make money. Now nurses do

Bree Pullen, a traveling nurse during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, walks wearing a protective face mask at the Four Corners Monument on her way to another assignment in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, U.S., December 12, 2021.  REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Have stethoscope, will travelImage: Reuters
|NEW YORK

Despite the obvious risks, nurses from all over America flocked to New York when the city was first afflicted by covid in 2020. As the various waves washed over America, the need for travel nurses grew as other states were hit hard too. Demand for travelling nurses has dipped a bit since, but it remains much higher than it was before the pandemic. Spending on travel nurses is five times what it was in 2019.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Footloose”

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